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Letter #30

call them Soga Shubun for the present, and you will agree with me that they are among the finest landscapes of Ashikaga work. You will swear when you see them, I shall question Stephen if you did'ntp[[didn't]]

2. Early Butsuga, Juichimen (Eleven-headed) Kwannon. It has been for many years in the private collection of old Yamanaka, whe [[who]] ascribes it to Kose Ahimi.

It is one of the finest and best preserved altarpieces of the second, or Fujiwara Period. It seems to me more probably Kasuga, and so probably by Kasuga Motomitsu, the founder. This would bring it about the year 1000 A. D.. or a little after At that period the Kose and Kasuga techniques were not so very unlike. I shall certainly identify the author among the greatest names of that day, but I should like to have a longer study of it. There is nothing finer of its kind in Boston.

3. Life size portrait head and bust of Shinga Kokushi, doubtless an early Shingon priest. It has recently come from Hokiin of Koyasan. There it was ascribed to the pen of Shinnio Shonin, a Japanese Shingon priest of the 9th or 10th century. But most old portraits not ascribed to Kobo Daishi are given to him, so that doesn't count.

It is on an apparently old parchment-like paper such as I have not seen. It is possibly the Corean ancestor of the parchment papers used later by the old Tosas. The drawing is of wonderful character, though so dark as nearly to obliterate the finer features. The whole character of the portrait is Tang, a style introduced by Kobo Daishi when he founded Koya. The strong brush strokes in the drapery are the Tang style. The beautiful pattern on the Keisa. overdrawn in firm outlineless strokes of cream, seems Corean in workmanship, yet close to Japanese lacquer patterns of Fujiwara time. It seems likely to be Japanese work between 900 and 1000 A.D. But I must study it further.

4. A unique design of many figures, small, on the steps of the old Daibutsu temple in Kioto. They call it only old Tosa.

You will divine at once, as A did, that here is a real connecting link between Tosa and Ukiyoye. The painting of the architecture and the trees above, as also the hair brush strokes in the figures, is essentially Tosa. On the other hand, the use of pigments and the proportion and pose of the figures is almost pure Kano. The minute figures are like the